Color, DragRgn
Volume Number: 4
Issue Number: 1
Column Tag: Basic School
Color & DragGrayRgn Explored 
By Dave Kelly, MacTutor Editorial Board
MAC II takes on BASIC
Yes, I know that it has been about a year since the Macintosh II was released and
not a word from me on how the Basic works on the Mac II. The Mac II really is a
wonderful machine, although there are still a few incompatibilities and
inconveniences. But all in all I still give the Mac II an A+.
The curiosity lies in figuring out what works (or doesn’t work) on the Mac II.
The Mac II has features that did not even exist when most of the versions of Basic were
written. Some things like color and screen size aren’t supported properly, or at all,
even though the software was capable before the Mac II came.
It’s fast. For example, just take a look at what it did for the Byte Magazine
January 1983 Prime number benchmark program, known as the Sieve. ZBasic™
comes up with a 2 second time, MS Basic Binary interpreter with 129 second time
(about the same as True Basic on the Mac Plus), and 15 seconds for the MS Basic
compiler. Of course, everything is faster so it is all relative. Since we already know
that the Mac II is faster and have a good idea about which versions of Basic are faster,
there is no need to go into that here. For more information comparing the various
versions of Basic, see MacTutor, Aug 1986, Feb. 1987 and Mar. 1987.
Screen Size: With the advent of the larger screen (also available for Mac Plus and
SE) we see the need to be fully compatible with all size monitors. MS Basic opens its
default windows to 512 X 342, the size of the SE and MacPlus screens. That works out
alright since it still isn’t known what kind of Mac might be running the program.
Double-clicking the title bar causes MS Basic windows to zoom to full screen size. The
LIST windows won’t expand horizontally beyond the 512 limit, but will expand
vertically to the bottom of the screen. The most annoying thing is that none of the
windows can be moved below a certain point on the screen which is very close to the
place where the bottom of the 9" screen would be (342). This means that you can
never move the command window out of the way; you have to close it just like on a Mac
Plus.
True Basic v. 1.1, which I haven’t looked at for awhile, opens the default window
to full screen size. Of course, True Basic still has all the HFS problems and other
limitations which I have discussed in past issues of MacTutor (Best of MacTutor Vol 2,
pg 379 or August 1986). (Version 1.1 is the latest that I have).
ZBasic Ver. 4.1 windows also open to full screen size. There doesn’t appear to be
any compatibility problems here at all. As I write this, the ZBasic promised editor has
still not been completed.
Color support: This is only a big deal to those of you with a Mac II with a color
monitor ( I wouldn’t have one any other way!!). As you know, the original Quickdraw
supports 8 colors already. I feel that it shows short-sightedness to not at least
support that much. But both MS Basic and True Basic have NO color support even
though both languages include means to change color from black to white. Other
versions (on other computers whose names we won’t say) of True Basic support a
small set of colors. MS Basic uses color as a parameter in the syntax for the CIRCLE
statement, yet you can’t get any colors except black and white.
ZBasic, however, does support the 8 colors in Quickdraw. That’s only 8 colors
for now, but I would expect that they will make improvements to this in some later
version (who knows when?). So meanwhile, if you want color you will have to settle
with the 8 basic colors. There are a few differences between ZBasic color statements
and Quickdraw color statements. In order to standardize ZBasic, Zedcor has numbered
the colors from 0 to 7. Quickdraw, however, has its own designation for each color as
the following chart shows:
The color codes in ZBasic and QuickDraw CANNOT be substituted for each other.
You will have to either use Quickdraw graphics or ZBasic graphics or be careful not to
mix the code with the wrong call. Sure, setting the color is easy, but be sure to use the
right code with the right statement.
This month’s program demonstrates the colors available in ZBasic and gives you
an example of its use. All you have to do is set the color before issuing a graphics
drawing statement and either Quickdraw or ZBasic (which probably uses Quickdraw
anyway) will use the color you selected.
What’s missing? Color QuickDraw™ that’s what. Fortunately, Zedcor has been
very responsive to updating ZBasic. I’m sure that it isn’t easy for them to keep
updating everyone so often. Let’s hope that the next version of ZBasic will include the
long awaited editor, Color QuickDraw and other major improvements. Read on!
[The slow response by the Basic compiler makers to upgrade their products to
meet the requirements of Muti finder, System 4.2 and the Macintosh II, has been really
disappointing! There is still a pressing need for a reliable, engineering oriented Basic
that provides full access to the Macintosh capabilities and can function in a workstation
environment (ie, it can do math correctly and quickly). We encourage both the present
Basic compiler makers to address this issue, as well as those we haven't seen in this
marketplace, like Borland, to enter it, and hopefully unite a fragmented and frustrated
market. -Ed]
{1}
‘ColorBasic
‘MacTutor, 1988
‘By Dave Kelly
WINDOW OFF
COORDINATE WINDOW
‘A color chart for future reference
DIM rect%(3)
MENU 1,0,1,”File”
MENU 1,1,1,”Quit”
EDIT MENU 2
MENU 3,0,1,”Colors”
MENU 3,1,1,”ZBasic™ Commands”
MENU 3,2,1,”ToolBox Commands”
MENU 3,3,1,”Erase window”
theEnd=0:REM theEnd will never come.
‘Make QuickDraw Color Assignments
blackColor&=33
whiteColor&=30
redColor&=205
greenColor&=341
blueColor&=409
cyanColor&=273
magentaColor&=137
yellowColor&=69
‘Make ZBasic Color Assignments
white=0
yellow=1
green=2
cyan=3
blue=4
magenta=5
red=6
black=7
WINDOW 1,”Color Demo Window”,(4,38)-(450,200),4
GOSUB “ZBasic™ Colors”: ‘ Print something to start